Mr Death

Just as I typed that title, I heard Bill & Ted talking to the very man on the telly in the next room.

Gets everywhere, doesn’t he?

I’m sure that Death must have been a regular spectre looming over the posts on this blog, and he seems particularly present as I return to it after another long absence.

Read on to find out why, and whether it might have anything to do with my next book.

Well, this is still (to some small degree, at least) a stroke-adjacent blog. And, one doesn’t emerge from an apparently catastrophic stroke without being affected by the proximity of The Grim Reaper.

“It’s me gags, innit?”

More pertinently, my father died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease and various other maladies at the beginning of May. The whole time had been a testing one, and something I noticed when he passed was that I had kind of pre-grieved for the man he had previously been.

Examining the strangeness of this sensation gave rise to what I think might be some interesting writing. This arose not least from the fact that I was listening to Scott Walker’s musical interpretation of Bergman’s The Seventh Seal as I drove to the hospital, having received the call that I would want to be there as soon as I could.

Royal Infirmary’s that way, mate

That piece of writing I have in mind probably won’t make its way into print until 2026, given what’s going to be coming out in the meantime.

What’s coming out in the meantime should hopefully include at least one book of work united by the theme of Death – or, more pertinently for sales pitch purposes, LIFE.

Jennifer Saunders being delighted to be alive

British comedy duo French & Saunders look very pleased to hear about that, but you can rest assured that it’s not time to talk about it yet.

However, anyone who’s interested to hear about something that I might have rustled together recklessly quickly can pop along to Scotland’s first Democratic Prose Slam at the Lost In Leith Bar this Sunday.

Jings, I'll be among some rather impressive and intimidating company at @anitagovan and @LivingSunbeam's innovative Democratic Prose Slam.

Come along to @lostinleithbar on Sunday to give me some moral support, eh? https://t.co/vGqe4W7MjK

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) July 15, 2024

Here’s hoping I don’t die a death!!! (You will with gags like that – Ed.)

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